The invention relates to supports, racks, buckles, buttons, clasps and the like and generally any specially mounted gripping article. More in particular, the invention relates to those gripping articles being wall mounted and having trackways, pivoted supports, horizontal rods and being especially adapted to hold paper, canvas, books, music sheets, or their equivalent.
Examples of prior art devices are found in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, particularly as classified in Class 211, Supports, Racks, subclasses 45, 89, 124; Class 24, Buckles, Buttons, Clasps, etc., subclasses 67.3, 67.11, 67.9; Class 248, Supports, subclass 452; Class 362, Illumination, subclass 375, 396. Examples of patents from these subclasses are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,518,563, 3,364,528, 4,194,635 and 4,404,619.
These patents all show various holding assemblies adapted to be mounted on a vertical surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,518,563 discloses a spring clip device. The gripping pressure is adjustable on this invention; however, it is believed that this adjustability is bulky, complicated, and unnecessary.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,528 discloses a gripping clamp. This clamp has a channel section as well as a pressure applying member. This pressure applying member is movable inwardly and outwardly by means of adjusting a wing nut. It is believed this structure is not only complicated but would take more time than is necessary to set something within this gripping apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,635 teaches the use of a spring biased x-ray film grip. The pressure applying member in this case is spring biased.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,619 teaches the use of a gripping assembly utilizing a ball weight.
Problems exist in the prior art in that known gripping devices mounted on vertical surfaces, so-called clips, are either complicated in that they have more parts than is necessary to effect efficient gripping or are unwieldy requiring the use of more than one hand or gripping pressure adjustments prior to the gripping function. These problems are solved by the present invention in that the invention provides a gripping assembly with a minimum of working parts which works primarily with gravity to effect the gripping function.